


Pidge's Happiness

by Cate_K1812



Series: Voltron ever after - a happy future for everyone [12]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Backstory, Children, Developing Relationship, Engagement, F/M, Family, First Meetings, Fluff, Future, Getting to Know Each Other, Hope, Hope vs. Despair, Kissing, M/M, Major Original Character(s), Marriage Proposal, Married Couple, Newborn Children, Robots, Science, Secret Crush, Supporting One Another, Supportive partner, introduction to the family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-11
Updated: 2019-08-11
Packaged: 2020-08-19 04:46:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 15,907
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20203939
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cate_K1812/pseuds/Cate_K1812
Summary: Pidge and Doctor Dennis Menace. A lovestory for the ages.This is the story of how Dennis and Pidge got together.This is what happened in the background of the other stories, to what probably no-one payed attention to.





	1. I'm Doctor Menace, nice to meet you

**Author's Note:**

> Part 12, finally.
> 
> This is a longer one, so I divided it in five chapters. 
> 
> The first chapter starts only minutes before "Andrea", thus:
> 
> PiT: 5 Years after season 7
> 
> And as always, and for all the following chapters, kudos for my Beta bev_crusher1971

Artemis slept in her bed and Matt had just handed his sister their baby Andrea. The baby was incredibly cute. Up to now Pidge had never liked children. She thought they were too loud and dumb and squishy. But this little girl… her skin was white as snow, with brown-blondish hair like Pidge and Matt had, and on her forehead was a big yellow mark that went down the back of her cute little nose and parted on the sides to go down her cheeks to the neck. Lance had tried to convince her two years ago, that it was Laura who was the cutest baby in the world, but for her it was Andrea.

“I call Dad.” Matt said and walked outside.

“Alright.” Pidge just muttered and kept looking at the baby.

All the others would surely agree with her that Andrea was cute. All the others probably hadn’t even recognized that Artemis had given birth yet. She had to show all of them. Artemis was sleeping anyway. She left the room and saw Matt standing with the back to her. She used this chance and strolled quickly and as unsuspiciously as possible in the opposite direction. Walking around a corner she checked if Matt had seen her. But that wasn’t the case. He was still on the phone. Giggling she turned around and bumped head first into the chest of a tall man.

“Oh sorry, Sir.” she immediately apologized, “I haven’t seen you.”

“No, it’s fine.” the man answered.

He was about as tall as Matt, had short brown hair and bright green eyes. He wore a lab-coat, white trousers and a white shirt. Around his neck hung a stethoscope and on his nose sat a slender pair of glasses.

“You’re Officer Katie Holt, aren’t you? The green Paladin?” he asked.

“Yes.” she answered, “And you are…?” she searched for a name-tag, but he didn’t wear one.

“Dennis.” he replied, “Doctor Dennis Menace. Leading expert in alien-biology and surgeon. Usually I work in the Garrison Hospital on earth, but my boss sent me on the Atlas this time.”

Pidge had to hold back a laughter. Dennis Menace? His parents must have hated him.

“Expert in alien-biology, I see. Quiet impressive.” she said.

“Thanks.” His gaze dropped from Pidge’s face to the baby in her arms. “Isn’t that the Goterian baby? I was asked to look after the mother and the child.”

“Er… yes.” Pidge agreed, “She’s my niece and I’m gonna show her to all my friends right now. Don’t tell my brother. I’m back in about an hour.”

Doctor Menace chuckled and let Pidge walked off. He walked around the corner and just saw Matt walking back inside the room. Coming closer he heard muffled cursing and Matt came hurrying back outside.

He saw Dennis and asked, “Sorry, Doc, have you seen my sister running away with my daughter?”

Dennis bit his lip, wondering if he should say something. Matt looked annoyed so he just told him were Pidge went and Matt ran after her.

~~~oOo~~~

Pidge wandered around the medical bay. She was looking for an ounce of a certain medicine as well as a syringe. Humming she looked through different drawers and finally found the medicine she was looking for.

A victorious smile crosser her face.

“What do you want with SGT-76?” she heard a male voice and flinched.

Turning around she saw Doctor Menace.

“Hey.” she greeted him awkwardly. “I’m… needing this.”

“What for?” he asked. “It’s a substance against Leukemia.”

“Yes.” she agreed, “But if you modify it a little, it becomes a perfect longtime fuel for the newest MFE-Fighter-Generation. It could fuel a jet for over 36 hours of flight.”

Doctor Menace didn’t look convinced.

“And the syringe?” he asked.

“What syringe?” Pidge played dumb, hiding said syringe behind her back.

“Well, you see, I really gotta go. Bye!” she pushed herself past the young Doctor and mumbled something about finishing a thesis.

Even though she was muttering it in a very low voice the doctor heard every word.

“What is your thesis about?” he asked curiously.

Pidge stopped in her track and turned around. “That is a very good question. I’m studying medicine and physics. My physics thesis is – inter alia – about the Generation-H MFE-Jets that I am constructing right now together with my brother. We also experiment with fuels. My medicine thesis on the other hand is about a cure against the _deep space fever_.”

Doctor Menace was quite impressed, “Wow. I would like to hear more. You’re free this weekend?”

Pidge thought about it a little, then frowned and shook her head. “No. We have a meeting on Gantira this weekend. It’s the five year anniversary of the Galtean Republic and all the paladins and stuff are invited. Sometime else maybe?”

“Sure.” he agreed, “But please stop stealing stuff from the hospital ward.”

“Stealing?” she asked in a sarcastic tone, “I’m not stealing. I’m borrowing. Well, see ya!”

She ran off and the young Doctor looked after her. On her way back to her lab, Pidge looked up the personnel-file from Doctor Dennis Menace. As expected the file was locked, not to be looked into by everyone. She sighed a little and went around the blockade. As the file finally opened she scrolled through it. Dennis Menace, born in Kerntilo Lake, Colorado, 25 years old.

“Oh, his birthday was last week.” she muttered and kept scrolling.

Doctor Menace was listed as top surgeon of his class, specialized on alien-biology and also considered to be the lead expert in this area.

“What an interesting guy.” she mumbled and closed the file.


	2. Lifting up into the light

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pidge know's that Dennis exist for almost two years now. They meet now and again, walking past each other. 
> 
> But after Acxa is gone, their relationship changes and deepens.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PiT: 7 Years after season 7 (two months after “Gone”)

The Atlas had just landed on earth last week. In the morning Pidge had been invited to her university and she had gotten her doctor degrees for medicine and physics.

With those in hands, she sat in the cafeteria of the garrison now, slurping on a cup of coffee and eating on a mediocre piece of chocolate cake.

She finally got what she had worked for for almost six years. She got her MD and PhD. But she wasn’t able to feel happy about it. Acxa was still MIA – Missing in Action – and the overall mood on the Atlas was… crappy to say the least.

The chair across her got pulled out and someone dropped themselves onto it.

“The cake here is bad. Try this one,” the person said and pushed a cupcake with pink icing and chocolate-chips in front of her.

Confused she looked up and recognized Doctor Menace.

“Hey, Doc.” she muttered.

“What is it? You look quite bumped out,” he said,.“I heard you got your doctor degrees. I thought you would celebrate that.”

She dropped the fork, sat up straight and adjusted her glasses.

“I’m not really in the mood for celebrating anything.” she replied.

“What happened?”

“A friend of ours got missing. My brother is divorcing his wife and I cannot help in either of those problems,” she explained. “I mean, yeah great. I got what I worked on for years, but… I just…” With a loud sigh she crumpled in on herself and dropped her head on the table. “You’re a doctor longer than me. What should I do?”

He smiled and understood her problems. He had heard from the MIA-case on the Atlas but he didn’t know the young woman would be so infected by this.

“Well,” he retorted, “as you said, you can’t do anything about those two things. I’d say you try to be happy about what you achieved. You’re… what? 20? And you already got a MD and PhD. That’s awesome. I was 22 when I got my MD and I only got this one MD.”

With a small smile Pidge lifted her head up and said, “I’m 22. Thanks for suggesting… being happy, Doc, but I don’t know-”

“Okay, then let me help you.” he said, “I make you think of something other than your problems.”

“What? Doctor-”

“Call me Dennis.” he interrupted her again. “Come on, Doctor Holt. Let’s have fun today. There is a fair nearby. I invite you.”

He had stood up and held out his hand to her. He had a big smile and looked over the rims of his glasses at her. The slender black frame didn’t do anything to his long and square face. His darkbrown hair hung in his face and Pidge couldn't hold back a chuckle any longer.

“Alright. I’m in.” she agreed, “And call me Pidge.”

“Pidge?”

“Or Katie.” she added, “Whatever suits you best.”

“Then Katie it is.” he said, “A pretty name for a pretty girl. Come on and don’t forget your cupcake.”

She grabbed the cupcake and they left the cafeteria. Together, they headed towards the garage and Pidge was slowly getting excited about what she would see next.

“Just so you know it,” Dennis said while they walked through the garage, “I’m not this cool type of doctor that drives a motorcycle or an expensive car.”

“I don’t mind.” Pidge replied, “I don’t even have a driving license.”

Dennis stopped in his track and looked confused at her, “But I saw you driving around plenty of times. Just this morning you came from the uni with a car.”

“What? You’re stalking me now?” she teased him.

“No.” he denied it, “I just saw you.”

She chuckled a little and explained herself, “Well, people don’t really care about a driving license when you are a paladin of Voltron. And I don’t need a car in space. I have rocket boots.”

“You have rocket boots?” he repeated.

“Of course, you don’t?” she asked, “I sometimes have to work in Zero-G and you need rocket boots then. Jet-packs are boring. Come on now. The fair.”

Dennis stared at her for a moment, then they walked on. In a smaller garage Dennis lead Pidge to an old bicopter-cycle. It was similar to the one Keith had had when he was 18, way back in the day when Shiro and Matt were MIA and their world had been much smaller. But this one in front of them was a much older model.

“Wow, this is antique.” she stated.

“Not quite.” he chuckled, “You like it? My dad got it for me when I was 16. It had been a pile of garbage back then and we made it working again. That’s the good thing about old tech. You don’t need a doctor in Engineering to fix them.”

“Not bad.” she praised. “Though I’m more into modern tech. Especially when it contains galran or altean elements.”

“Come on, get up and lets go.” he said and got on the cycle, started and revved the engine.

A pleasant shiver ran down her spine as she heard the sound of the howling motor. Modern tech and vehicles were almost always silent. But this sound was arousing. She walked over to the bicocycle, pushed the last bite of cupcake in her mouth and got up behind Dennis.

The engine howled again and the bike stated to levitate. Dennis tapped twice on the gas pedal and the bike sped up and out of the garage. Pidge let out a surprised high pitched scream and wrapped her arms around Dennis’ body.

“You’re scared, green Paladin?” he shouted over his shoulder at her and chuckled.

“I’m not scared!” she yelled back, “Just surprised.”

“Don’t worry. I’m a good driver and I actually got a license,” he joked.

She laughed and held onto him. Her sadness was forgotten.

She had met Doctor Menace, respectively Dennis, multiple times during the last two years and she had researched him. He had made his MD in Harvard and had been in England for over two years. At age 22 he had joined the Garrison as a doctor in the hospital. Two years ago had been the first time he was part of an Atlas-mission. It had been his duty to look for Artemis and Andrea. He also shared a lot of work with the galra Doctor Aiphos, who was primary a gynecologist and Children’s doctor.

Pidge had encountered Dennis usually when she was wandering around the medical bay _borrowing_ stuff she needed for her research and experiments, like a scalpel, a defibrillator or a magnetic resonance tomograph. Okay, he had been quite pissed when she had put an unknown fruit, that could have been an egg or stone, into his MRT and also when she had taken the portable x-ray to try out a new radar-detective-system. But she usually returned his stuff unharmed.

After about ten minutes of driving Dennis slowed the bike down and landed it shortly after. Annoyingly joyful music came from the fair. They got off the bicocycle and walked towards the entrance.

“See, I am a good driver.” he said.

“Indeed you are.” she agreed, “The last time a guy took me somewhere with his bike, we jumped off of a cliff. So… you’re good.”

Dennis let out an amused chuckle, “Who would do something reckless like that?”

“Keith.” Pidge said, “With me and three other additional people on board, one of them being unconscious.”

“W-w-wait.” he interrupted her, “Keith, like in Keith McClain, black paladin Commander Keith McClain?!”

“You know a different Keith?” she asked jokingly.

“Well, yeah, but they wouldn't make sense.” he admitted, “So Commander McClain jumped off a cliff with you and three other people?”

“Yeah, we broke Shiro free before that and the garrison was after us.” she explained.

“Wow, you get more interesting with every sentence.” he said, “Up to now I just thought you were cute, clever and a little pilferer.”

He paid their tickets for the fair and they entered.

“Well, I guess you could say I’m quite a steal.” she joked.

This joke had been so bad he just had to laugh.

“That’s for sure,” he agreed with her.

~~~oOo~~~

Some weeks passed. Pidge and Dennis had started to meet regularly. The Atlas was out for almost a month now and passed through the Plandarian quadrant. It was said that a small yellow star in this quadrant would soon expand to become a red giant and a lot of scientists wanted to watch this spectacle from as close as possible.

Dennis, being on his break, spend his free time in the lions hangar. Pidge was bowed over an interesting looking pile of metal components, forging some new add-on for the green lion.

“Can you hand me the screwdriver?” she asked.

Dennis looked into the tool box beside him on the table and picked out the wanted screwdriver, handing it to her.

“Thanks. And my mask please. Need to weld this,” she said.

Her welding mask laid behind the box. He gave it over and watched her weld a piece of metal to another piece of metal. He had no idea what she was crafting there. But in the end it usually worked.

Katie was, in his eyes, one of me most impressive people on this ship. She maybe was small and looked all cute with her big round glasses, the wild, usually tied back, blond-brown hair and her slender body, but one wrong word and she would electrocute or shoot you with some of her gadgets. He had felt that personally when he had joked about a failed experiment of hers. After being electrocuted by her, he had joked that she put the ‘cute’ in ‘electrocute’ and she had zapped him again. No, it had been Matt, that had zapped him then. Matt was essentially Katie in a little taller and in the male version.

Pidge put away her welding gear and took off the mask. She looked over to Dennis, who was still sitting on her table eating his sandwich.

As their gazes met she cracked a smile and said, “You little menace either got me something to eat as well or I gotta kick you out.”

“Funny,” he replied in a dry tone and pulled a small box out of his pocket. “It’s really not nice menacing a friend like this.”

He handed her a box and both of them giggled. Pidge pulled a chair closer and sat down on it, opening the box. Inside was a sandwich, cut in two pieces. She picked up a half, inspected it and took a bite. It was her favorite and she let out a satisfied groan.

“Thanks,” she mumbled while chewing, “it’s delicious as always.”

“Your welcome,” he replied.

“One question,” she said and swallowed, “your last name. It’s not exactly flattering. Have you ever considered changing it?”

“Yeah, of course.” he answered, “No matter whom I’m going to marry, I’m going to take their last name. But not if it is even stupider, like Dick or something like that.”

“Gotcha.” she agreed, “I would do the same.”

They chatted a little about everything until Pidge had eaten up and continued her work.

“Hey, can you get me the small crystal from the box back there,” she asked, “The blue one.”

“Sure, no problem,” he said and stood up.

He found the box and dug around a little until he found said blue crystal.

“Got it,” he said and held it up.

Pidge threw a quick look over her shoulder and replied, “Perfect and while your on it, please put back what you took a while ago.”

“Took a while ago?” he repeated confused, “I haven’t taken any of your stuff.”

“Of course you did.” she said, “I thought I could get it back on my own, but apparently you hold on to it quite well. No chance for me.”

Dennis became even more confused now and walked back to her to give her the crystal.

“As I said, I haven’t taken anything,” he repeated, “but if you tell me what it is, I can help you looking for it.”

“I don’t need you to look for it,” she murmured, “I know you have it.”

Getting a little annoyed Dennis leaned onto Pidges workplace and leaning in on her. “So you accuse me of having stolen something without the smallest hint? And you’re not even telling me what it is?”

Pidge let out an uncomfortable groan and slammed her ratchet down before looking up.

“If you don’t wanna give it back than keep it, damn it!” she almost shouted.

“What even is it?” he asked, mirroring her tone.

“My heart, holy Quiznak!” she shouted.

Dennis was at a loss of words. They just stared at each other for seconds that felt like forever. Both becoming redder by the second.

“Erm…” Dennis started to mutter at some point breaking eye-contact, “If… you don’t mind, you can have mine in exchange. I… I would like to keep yours.”

Red-faced Pidge looked back down to her bunch of metal, “Sounds like a fair deal.”

“Good.” he said with a nervous laughter making a step back and leaning against the table again. “D-does that mean we’re dating now?”

“I guess so.” Pidge replied.

“Neat.”

“Yeah. Neat.”

It was silent in the hangar.

“My break’s over.” Dennis said after an uncomfortable long silence, “Er… see you tomorrow?”

“Sure.” she agreed and looked up again.

He strolled towards the door and waved her goodbye. She waved back. He walked down the hall to the elevators.

After the doors had closed behind him he let out a loud victorious scream, “Yes! I did it! I’m finally dating Katie Holt! And it took me only two years!” a sudden realization hit him, “And I said ‘neat’ to it! How stupid am I?”

~~~oOo~~~

When the Atlas was staying on earth Pidge and Matt had a family dinner with their parents once a week. Samuel being Admiral of the Garrison had a lot of pros but some cons as well, like having to stay on earth almost all the time.

The dinner this week was special. Last week Pidge had dropped the bomb that she was dating someone for over four months at this point and this week she had to bring him.

Dennis was quite nervous. He parked his bike on the driveway in front of the Holt’s family home. Except for Admiral Holt he had met everyone before. Matt didn’t seem to like him that much and Doctor Colleen Holt seemed to be quite protective over her family.

Getting off of his bicocycle he took a deep breath and straightened his clothes. He had picked his best pair of jeans, wore a white shirt, a black bow-tie and a black sport jacket. It looked elegant but not too elegant for a family dinner.

Standing in front of the door, nervousness over took him. He was shaking when he pressed the door bell. He heard some voices from inside and then the door opened. Katie smiled up to him. Her hair was tied back and looked more proper and tidy than usual. She wore a light green summer dress with a brown belt around her waist and yellow flowers on the straps and chest. She didn’t wore her glasses today and he saw her big brown eyes.

“Wow, you look good,” he greeted her.

She chuckled and blushed a little. “Thanks. My Mom thought a dress would fit the occasion. You’re looking not bad either.”

“Thanks,” he replied.

She asked him in and led him through the living room to the dining room. The table was already set and a delicious smell came from the kitchen next door. At the head of the table stood Admiral Holt, opening a wine bottle.

When Sam recognized his daughter and her boyfriend, he put the still closed bottle aside and walked towards them to greet Dennis with a handshake.

“Welcome, young man. Samuel Holt, nice to meet you.” he said.

“Good evening, Admiral Holt. Dennis Menace,” he introduced himself.

Sam smiled and replied, “No need for formalities. Just call me Sam.”

Saying that, Colleen came from the kitchen, carrying a big plate with a roast. Matt came after her, carrying a bowl with pasta.

“Sam, have you poured the wine already?” she asked and then she spotted the bottle. Still closed.

She sighed annoyed, put the plate down and handed the bottle to her son. Matt opened it easily and poured the wine.

“Sorry, Darling.” Sam apologized, “I was busy greeting our guest.”

Seeing Dennis, Colleen started to smile. “Doctor Menace, nice to see you. How are you?”

“I’m fine, thanks a lot, Doctor Holt and thanks for the invitation,” Dennis replied and his gaze met Matt’s.

The other man didn’t look to happy about him being here.

“I have a look at Andy.” Matt said and walked upstairs.

“Right, I forgot about Andrea.” Dennis muttered, “How is she?”

“Very well.” Sam answered, “Come on, take a seat and we can start eating.”

Dennis and Katie sat down on one side of the table, Sam sat next to Dennis on the head of the table and Colleen beside him. Matt came back after checking on his toddler and took his seat next to his mother.

Colleen gave out food to everyone and Sam started a conversation with Dennis. “I guess we all know the story of how you met, but when have you started dating? Katie only told us last week.”

Colleen nodded and added, “We were really surprised to hear that you two were dating.”

“Well, I just tried to avoid something like this,” Katie muttered and looked straight onto her plate.

“Er… well we started dating… about four months ago, right, Katie?” he said.

“14th of April.” she replied, “I was working on my new EMP-Impulse canon.”

“And she asked me to return what I stole from her and I was just completely confused,” he continued.

Sam and Colleen seemed to be very interested in the story and she asked, “And what was it you took?”

Katie was blushing fiercely, keeping quiet and Dennis just chuckled awkwardly, “Her heart.”

“Oh gosh. Really, Pidge?” Matt asked, “Isn’t that way to kitschy for you?”

“Oh sorry, Matt, but sometimes – even though you don’t think so – I can be girly!” she bit back on him.

Colleen silenced her children and said, “I think it is quite cute, Katie.”

Katie’s mood seemed to lighten up a little and she replied with a cheeky grin, “Yeah and when we agreed on dating Dennis just said ‘neat’.”

Everyone around the table giggled and the meal continued without any other sibling-fights. When Dinner was finished, Colleen got up and reached for a plate.

Dennis immediately jumped up and took another one, saying, “I can help with that, Ma’am.”

But Katie took the plate out of his hands and pushed him towards her father and her brother, with a malicious little smile, “Oh no, honey. We girls will clean the kitchen, you go and have fun with Dad and Matt.” Whispering she added, “Should be enough torture. You don’t have to deal with my mom alone tonight.”

His smile turned a little desperate at being seen through so easily. He knew what she was thinking. She thought, he wanted to avoid spending time with Matt and Samuel. And she wasn’t wrong. He mainly wanted to avoid Matt. Matt was a nice guy, but way to protective over Katie. He had electrocuted him once.

A little disappointed he moved to the living room with the other men. The room had a big L-shaped sofa and two comfortable looking armchairs. Matt sat down in one of the armchairs and Dennis and Sam sat down on either sides of the sofa.

“Okay, listen, Menace.” Matt started and sounded a little threatening, “You hurt my little sister, I hurt you.”

“Matt.” Sam muttered, “I think Katie can take care of herself.”

“Yes, definitely.” Dennis agreed. This was exactly what he had hoped to avoid. He wasn’t stupid after all and knew his girlfriend’s brother a little at this point. “To be honest, I would never dare to hurt her. Have you seen her friends? They can be quite scary. Also I adored her from the moment I first saw her. She is clever and just perfect all around. It was the best moment in my life when she confessed to me.”

“That sounds very promising,” said Sam. “You seem to be a very nice guy. About your bike, where have you got it from?”

This topic was something Dennis loved to talk about. He could talk about it with Katie for hours and sometimes they worked on it together. He told the story about the bike being a birthday present and repairing it with his father when he still had been in high-school.

While they talked about bikes and cars in general, Sam told about the construction of the first MFE-Fighters and the IGF-Atlas. Matt shared a story about often having to fix the ships of his fellow rebels and Sam even unpacked a story from when he had been a boy and repaired an old car with his Dad which made him fall in love with technology.

After Colleen and Katie had finished the kitchen they sat down with the men. Colleen sat down next to her husband and Katie sat down next to Dennis, lightly leaning against him.

“Your father must be really proud of you.” Sam said at some point of the conversation and Dennis’ happy smile became sadder.

“Yeah, I guess he would be,” he muttered and put his glass of wine away.

Confused Katie looked back to him and asked, “What? Is he-?”

“He died shortly after I graduated High-school.” Dennis said, “He had a rare case of cancer that was uncurable back then. He died eight years ago and four years ago they found a cure.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.” Colleen said, “So is it just you or-?”

“Yes, just me.” Dennis answered cutting her off, “My Mom died shortly after. During the invasion though the Galra.”  
An uncomfortable silence filled the room. Katie hadn’t known about it yet. Before that, he had never talked much about his family, only that they were heavily involved in his choices of career. She put her hand down on his and gently linked their fingers.

She caught his thankful warm glance and smiled.

“But I wouldn't want a thing to change” Dennis said and looked up from her again. “My Dad’s sickness made me wanting to become a doctor for medicine so I could help people and find cures for illnesses like that cancer. And my Mom… well… after her death I decided to join the Galaxy Garrison so I could help the people protecting the earth. And then came Voltron and saved us all. With the Aliens that Voltron brought I started to discover my fascination for them and well, here I am, the person I am today.”

“Yes, the Galra and Voltron influenced us all, right, Dad.” Matt joked.

Sam just nodded with a laughter.

Colleen couldn't find anything funny about this, after all had the Galra first taken away her son and husband and after that her daughter had vanished without a trace.

At some point they heard a noise from the baby-phone and Matt got up looking for his daughter.

After he was gone, Dennis asked carefully about his divorce.

“Personally, I don’t understand it,” Colleen said, “Artemis was a great person. But the way she left… and even letting behind Andrea. I mean, I’m glad she did. This way I can see my _only_ grandchild, but as a mother I can’t understand this decision.”

Katie’s eye started twitching when her mother had put so much emphasis on ‘_only_’. She knew exactly what she was implying. Also, she had told it her to her face in the kitchen earlier. She had asked, ‘_When will you two marry?_’ and ‘_Have you talked about children yet?_’ and Katie had almost stabbed her mother. She didn’t want children. They were tyrannical little beasts that wanted everything and were just loud and noisy. Katie hadn’t even liked children when she was a kid herself and even though she loved her friends’ kids, Laura, Kyle, Elfor, Ted and especially her niece Andrea, she would never want a child herself.

“Well, the bond Matt and Artemis had was forged during heated times of war.” Sam considered, “In times with high stress minds work differently. Romances that are created during war for example can easily break when there is peace, because the variable of death and danger is gone. People that behaved one way during a crisis can change completely as soon as there is peace. I think this happened to Matt and Artemis. She was a person that just couldn't live a calm and secure life. And calm Matt… just didn’t seem so be what she wanted anymore.”

“Nice of you to discuss my failed marriage while I’m gone.” Matt said, standing in the door frame. “Believe it or not, Dad, but I’ve already come to the same conclusion. I just hoped it wouldn't happen to me.” He dropped himself back into the armchair and asked, “Pidge, how do Keith and Lance manage to maintain a relationship? They came together during a crisis as well.”

“Yeah, but they worked together as a team and friends beforehand.” Katie explained, “Their relationship is grounded on a completely different base. And they’re both idiots, so… yeah.”

Dennis chuckled and thought about putting an arm around Katie’s waist. Feeling Colleen’s judging gaze he decided not to.

Around eleven o’clock, Dennis chose to leave for today. He said goodbye to Sam and Doctor Holt as well as Matt, and Katie brought him to the door. She closed the door behind them and enjoyed the first quiet moment at this evening.

“What an evening, right?” she muttered.

“Yeah, quite an experience.” he agreed, “You think they like me?”

Katie nodded, “They do. My Mom already asked about a wedding and stuff. She didn’t like my argument that I’m a scientist not a housewife.”

“I can’t really imagine you being a housewife,” he replied.

“Yeah, right?” she chuckled, “Whatever. I loved that you were here, putting up with… all of this.”

“Anytime,” he said, “They’re your family after all. Well, good night then.”

He scratched the back of his head and slowly backed away.

“What? Don’t I get a good night kiss?” she asked playful.

“Oh yeah, sorry.” He stepped back to her, bowed down and kissed her.

The kiss was short and Katie wasn’t satisfied. She pulled him back in by the neck and got herself a second, longer kiss.

Letting him go she smirked, “We’re dating for over four months now. You can kiss me for real. Even in front of people if you want.”

“Er… I…” he stuttered, “I… guess. I just-”

She laughed and tilted her head to the side. “I spent 18 months in space with five guys and only one other girl that was, though a 10,000 years old, just a 21 year old princess chick. I can handle a boy doing boyfriend stuff, alright. You really should lose your shyness around me. Especially when you meet your friends.”

“I just don’t wanna make a mistake,” he said, “I-”  
“I’m quite certain you’re physically unable to make mistakes,” she cut him off. “You’re a perfect genius after all.”

Dennis took a deep breath and covered his mouth with his hand.

After taking it down again he asked, “How come you’re always that smooth?”

She grinned. He cupped her face and kissed her on the tip of her nose before giving her a last goodbye kiss on the mouth. Then he walked off to his bicocycle, started the engine and drove off. Katie went inside when she lost sight of the bike’s back lights. Her family was still in the living room, emptying the rest of the second wine bottle when she joined them.

“So,” she said, “that was Dennis. Whatcha y’all thinkin’?”

“I like him,” her mother immediately replied. “He’s well mannered, intelligent, a doctor and handsome. Also, he has these beautiful green eyes.”

“I know, his eyes are like paxian emeralds. So beautiful,” Katie enthused.

“I think he fits nicely in the family,” Sam more or less agreed with his wife.

Everyone glanced over to Matt and waited for his statement now. The man had been quite aggressive against their visitor at first and only calmed a little. Also Katie remembered some sabotage acts of her brother against Dennis before she had told her family that they were dating.

“He’s alright I guess,” Matt replied. “I know him longer than all of you because he was looking after Artemis during her pregnancy. I like him. He’s a very good doctor and is good with children. Also, he doesn’t ran away when you joke around a little.”

“You mean like when you electrocuted him?” Katie asked, remembering that one incidence a few months back.

Matt held back a chuckle, “Come on, he deserved that one. His joke was just too lame.”

She rolled her eyes and sat down on the couch again.

“Also,” Matt added, “you’re aware of the fact, that he’s technically only one year older than you and not four?”

A little confused she looked at him and he explained, “The three years in which Voltron was gone. You guys haven’t been effected by those at all while all the rest of the universe aged three years. Thus making the Menace named Dennis only one year older than you.”

Katie had to admit that she had never thought about it this way. She had never really thought about the age difference. All her friends were older than her. Lance and Hunk were 25 and Keith soon would turn 28. Matt and Veronica were even older, both being 31 and Shiro definitely being the oldest, having turned 33 this year. But he looked even older, at least 41. That was the result of the white hair. She left Allura and especially Lotor out of the equation.

“Whatever.” she muttered and emptied her glass, “I go to bed. Good night everyone.”

“Good night, sleep tight,” her father said and she left the room, walking upstairs.

~~~~oOo~~~

Dennis knew, today was the most important day since he had started dating Katie. Today he would meet all of her friends. The paladins of Voltron. He already knew most of them but only on a polite, ‘_I-walked-past-you-on-the-hallway-that-once_’-basis. The family dinner last week seemed almost lame, compared to it.

“You’re not nervous, are you?” Pidge asked as they walked through the hall to the McClain-flat.

Keith and Lance, alongside Hunk and Shay and Allura and Lotor, had the biggest flats from the friends, that why important meetings or celebrations always circled around those three flats.

“Just a little.” Dennis admitted, “Your friends are the paladins of Voltron after all. They’re famous. But I’ll get this. I’m not going to faint or anything.”

She giggled, “I hope so.”

They reached the door and Pidge pressed the bell. The door opened and a small girl looked up to them. Her skin was brown and sunkissed, her hair long and darkblue, with two small horns pocking out of it. Also she had big blue galran eyes with yellow scleras.

“Hey, Laura,” Pidge greeted the girl that immediately started to laugh and looped her arms around Pidge’s waist.

She petted the girls head and started walking in. But Laura didn’t want to let go and just got somewhat dragged inside by the woman. Dennis just grinned and followed her.

“Hello everyone!” Pidge greeted loud into the round.

Everyone was already there. As usually she was the last. On the carpet in front of the couch were three toddlers and played with one another and some toys. Dennis recognized one of the children as Pidge’s niece Andrea. Her skin being white as snow with the yellow markings, the two blond-brown pigtails and the amber eyes. She seemed older than the two boys. One of them wore a purple onesie, had light skin, dark eyes and brown hair. The other one was – strangely enough – also wearing a purple onesie, but it was a different shade of purple and the boy had dark skin with black-blue hair, pointed ears and small blue markings underneath his eyes. This boy was undeniably an Altean.

Everyone greeted them back and Pidge started the general introduction of her boyfriend to the round. “So, everyone, this is Dennis. Dennis, here we have Lance and Keith, over there are Lotor and Allura. You already know Matt, the one beside him is Veronica, Laura’s Mom, then we have Shiro and Hunk, and Shay with Ted. And on the carpet are Kyle, Elfor and Andrea.”

Dennis waved in the round, “Hello, nice to meet you all.”

Seeing all the paladins with their families like this, they didn’t seem so scary as they did with their armors on. Keith and Lance, the leaders of Voltron, especially seemed to be much more chilled and laid back than when they were on duty somewhere. The red paladin was usually very cheery but had a certain level of seriousness even when he joked around. His brown hair was so long that it could almost be considered a mullet. The black paladin on the other hand had lost all his stern appearance. His expression was soft, the usually tied back black hair was open, falling onto his forehead and over his shoulders.

Pidge walked off to give Laura, who was still clinging to her hip, back to her mother. Dennis recognized that Hunk was approaching him, holding the baby that had been introduced as Ted.

“Hello, Commander-”

“No, no, it’s Hunk,” he shut him off. “No formalities here. So, you’re the guy my best friend was dating for months without telling me.”

“Well, I guess.” Dennis muttered and eyed Hunk, the baby and the Bulmeran female on the couch.

He knew the three of them well. He had taken care of them as an expert and had monitored Shay’s pregnancy.

“How is Ted?” he asked.

Hunk handed the child over to the doctor without hesitation and said, “He’s fine. Sleeping like a stone lately.”

Dennis was a little surprised and eyed the baby. Ted was bigger and heavier than a usual six-months-old, he had small, soft bulges that would become horns like his mothers. His skin was green-gray like Shay’s, but his eyes were brown like Hunk’s, so was his hair. Ted was energetic and lively today and giggled all the time.

“He really does look good., Dennis said and gave the baby back.

As he met Hunk’s gaze this time the man smiled and said, “Take good care of Pidge, ‘kay?”

“Er… sure.” Dennis replied.

He was a little confused. He was only dating her for about five months. He hadn’t proposed to her, had he? They weren’t going to get married within the next months, were they?

After his short talk with Hunk, Dennis walked over to Pidge but got caught by the toddlers. Andrea babbled something and held up her plushy to him. He hunkered down and took the plushy.

“This is nice of you, Andrea,” he thanked her.

“Luis,” she said and pointed the plushy.

Dennis nodded, “Luis is a nice name.”

The girl grinned and took the plushy back. Before Dennis could get up again he felt a tiny hand on his knee. Looking down he saw Kyle. He only knew Kyle from his patient-file. He didn’t monitor the Galran or Altean children. His colleague Doctor Aiphos took care of them.

“Well hello, little one,” he said and tapped Kyle on his nose.

“Dada,” Kyle babbled.

“That’s not Papá, sweety.” Dennis heard Keith’s soft voice and the other man sat down next to him on the floor and opened his arms towards the boy.

Very quickly, Kyle crawled over to his Dad and let himself be picked up.

“Sorry for the confusion,” Keith apologized. “He’s learning to speak his first words in the moment and everyone is ‘Dada’.”

“I don’t mind.” Dennis retorted and sat down comfortably as well, “I like children. Kyle, right?”

Keith nodded and gave Dennis a warm smile. The young doctor was quite surprised by it. He had never seen Keith like this. Even his eyes weren’t as cold and hard and gray as usual and instead all soft and warm and purple.

“You want a coffee?” Keith asked, “Or something else to drink?”

“Coffee would be nice, yeah.” he answered.

The black paladin looked over to his husband who was was talking with Allura, “Lance, would you get the coffee?”

“Yeah sure.” Lance replied and stood up walking in the kitchen.

His niece Laura ran after him.

“Pidge told me you have a bicocycle,” Keith said, “Quite an old one.”

Dennis nodded and they started chatting about bikes and how they both learned to drive, their wildest maneuvers and even bonded a little over both having lost their father. After a couple of minutes Lance came back with a tray and handed out cups of coffee to everyone who wanted one. With Kyle still on his lap, Keith held his cup and kept talking to Dennis.

Dennis recognized that Keith’s coffee smelled different and Kyle was always grabbing upwards for the cup.

“No coffee for you, sweety.” Keith muttered giggling and held the cup out of his reach.

That’s when Elfor came crawled up to him and also wanted onto his lap. Keith laughed and gave his cup to Dennis. He pulled Elfor next to Kyle and stood up with a little groan. Walking over to Allura and Lotor, he dropped both boys at them and muttered something about auntie and uncle duties.

Dennis, still sitting on the floor with two cups of coffee, really enjoyed this. He was an only-child and hadn’t had a family gathering since he had moved away from his home town. All the people here were just so loving and close with each other.

Two arms were looped around his neck and Pidge put her head down on his shoulder, “So? You like it? Not scared anymore?”

“No, it’s fine,” he answered and pressed a soft kiss on her cheek.


	3. That one time we saved a planet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An unknown sickness has infected a Bulmera and the Atlas is supposed to help. 
> 
> Doctor Katie Holt and Doctor Dennis Menace, the head-scientist's of the Atlas, get the very important job of creating a cure.
> 
> Also, they have great news for Pidge's parents.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PiT: 11 Years after season 7

The leading ranks of the Atlas held an important meeting today. On the Bumera T-45 an epidemic had broken out. The inhabitants from the planet had begged for help and now it was upon the Atlas to decide if they could help or not.

Pidge and Dennis were included in this meeting in their function as doctors.

“What was the result of the drone-probe?” Captain Shirogane asked.

Dennis stood up and started to read out the results. “The epidemic was caused by a virus that came to T-45 via a comet from the Solarian solar-system. We’re able to create a vaccine but it will take at least two weeks and some tests. Voltron definitely has to take away the comet from the planet, to prevent another reinfection and for our own sake we will have to disinfect the loins completely afterwards.”

“Can the virus infect humans or other people on this ship?” the captain asked straight forward.

Pidge stood up next to Dennis and said loud and clear, “Yes. The sickness is similar to the measles in appearance and molecular structure. Our method will be to change the measles-vaccine we already have, thus we can work faster. Non the less the risk of infection if high and we have to hold the planet on quarantine.”  
All the higher ranking officers were a little confused until one asked, “Measles? Isn’t that sickness eliminated since the second half of the 21st century?”

Dennis nodded and threw a statistic from his tablet onto the big screen. “It is. It wouldn't be a problem either if the virus was the exact same as on earth, everyone of us is vaccinated against that one.”

“Why are we vaccinated against an extinct sickness?” one female Officer asked.

Pidge and Dennis were a little confused and had the respective look on their faces.

“So they _stay_ extinct!?” Pidge said, putting a little emphasis on the ‘_stay_’.

Dennis looked through his data and put up another graphic. “Alright, if we have a look at this, we see that the measles were almost eliminated once before 2059, in the late 1990s. But due to a very wealthy period in the modern world during the early 21st century, technically extinct sicknesses like the measles, mumps or whopping cough were able to make a return.”

“How so?” someone asked.

“People,” Pidge explained, “mostly young parents that had no clue of medicine whatsoever, decided that there wouldn't be a reason to vaccinate their children, because supposedly vaccines contained poisons. So this doesn’t happen again, we – humans for that matter – get still vaccinated against technically extinct sicknesses so they stay extinct. These basic vaccinations are more important nowadays then ever before. Earth is becoming a space-hub like planet. Vaccinations and quarantines not only protect humanity but also other races from becoming severely sick.” She pointed to the big screen and threw a different statistic onto it. “This is an estimate of how fast the sickness – we’ve been calling it MT-rash for now – could spread when a single person on the Atlas gets infected by it.”  
“The MT-rash-virus is especially dangerous because it doesn’t get transferred via droplet infection but through the air and the breath of a person,” Dennis explained. “Also the incubation time adds up to about a week. Thus one person having the virus could infect the whole ship even before first symptoms show with patient zero.”

A heavy silence hovered in the room until Commander Allura asked, “So what are we going to do?”

“First comes the elimination of the comet.” Pidge said, “Afterwards we have to get an infected Bulmeran here and put them in quarantine. We need a subject to extract the virus from and test our vaccines. After successfully healing this subject, we can vaccinate the crew and take care of T-45.”

“For the matter of safety, we have to install disinfection-showers at the entrance to the hangar in which the lions are contained,” Dennis suggested. “We also should only work in the lions’ hangar to further minimize the risk of spreading the infection. Also,” he paused and looked around to all the parents in the room, “whoever is in contact with the Bulmerans or the virus should stay away from children. Kids get infected much more easily than adults because their immune-system isn’t fully developed yet.”

A small discussion started, talking about further security measures and ways to speed up the process.

In the end it was decided that Voltron would first eliminate the comet by pushing it into the nearest sun and while they took care of the comet the lions’ hangar would be remodeled to a quarantine zone with a cell for the Bulmeran subject.

~~~oOo~~~

A week had passed since the lions’ hangar had become a quarantine zone. The paladins of Voltron as well as Doctor Menace and the MFE-Pilots Griffin and Kinkade were the only ones in the hanger. They all had agreed on the fact, that the fewer people were in the quarantine the saver it was for the rest of the crew.

It hit the hardest young parents who had to be separated from their children. Keith and Allura both had a baby-daughter as well as a five-year-old they wanted to see. Same with Lance. Hunk worried about his wife as well and his two sons. They were all Bulmeran, or at least partially. In his mind they could get infected just by looking at the sick Bulmera. The children were taken care of in the daycare as well as their relatives and friends but there simply was no way to replace the parents.

Pidge and Dennis stood under extreme pressure. They had to find the cure asap.

The young scientist sighed loud and leaned back on her chair, rolling away from her microscope.

“What is it, Kitty?” Dennis asked, without looking up.

“I have the feeling we just move in circles,” Pidge muttered. “The measles-virus is compatible with the MT-rash-virus but it just doesn’t work.”

Dennis rolled away from his experiment and put a hand down on her knee. “Don’t worry. We get this. It only needs a little more time. Maybe you should quit for today. It’s already 11 pm again.”

“I can not quit, Dennis.” she hissed and stood up, walking around the small provisional laboratory.

He let her wander around for a little while, before rolling over to her, grabbing her by the waist and pulling her down onto his lap and putting his head onto her shoulder.   
“Relax, Kitty,” he muttered, “you’re probably the best scientist in the world. You’ll find a solution.”

She moaned a little and made weak attends to break free.

“I know what you need now.” he said, “Warmth and comfort. Why don’t we just cuddle up in bed and sleep?”

“I can’t rest now.” she repeated herself, “Also it’s much too warm to share…”

She went silent and just stared forward.

“Kitty?” Dennis asked, “Katie? Pidge?”

Finally she reacted and turned around to him, “I think I got it.”

“You do?” he asked.

“Warmth and comfort! That’s the solution!” she shouted joyful and pressed a kiss to his lips. “It’s too hot for the virus! It is not active because of the high temperature here and that’s why it doesn’t combine with the measles. The hotter it is, the more active becomes the virus. On the Bulmeran is an average temperature of 41 degrees Celsius or 314.15 Kelvin. The measles-virus from earth gets transferred via droplet infection, meaning-”

“It doesn’t need to rely on temperature to spread. But the MT-rush-virus only became active after landing on the Bulmera and these Bulmerans have a higher body-temperatures than any of those we have met before.” Dennis followed up her thought.

“Exactly.” she agreed, “That why the virus was able to spread within days over the whole Bulmera. Means if we make it cooler for the MT-rash-virus, it calms down and the viruses can combine and thus we can create the vaccine!”

“Katie, you’re a genius!” Dennis called out.

They immediately sat down by the table again and started some tests.

~~~oOo~~~

The vaccine that Pidge and Dennis had created for the MT-rash-virus was a real wonder. Injected into an infected person it killed all the viruses within less than 24 hours and the vaccine had no negative impact on the human crew, or any other species on board. Within only three days the Bulmera T-45 was freed from the gruesome virus and was able to heal the last of his people completely. Shay and the inhabitants of T-45 had the idea to immunize the whole Bulmera against the MT-rash, so following generations of this Bulmera could be born immune to the sickness.

Back on earth the Holts decided to celebrate Pidge’s and Dennis’ fabulous victory against the sickness. Pidge and Dennis reached the house of Pidge’s parents and saw to their surprise Matt’s car with the two booster seats for the girls.

“You think Matt brought Veronica and the girls?” Dennis asked.

“Well, they’re dating for almost two years now,” Pidge replied, “and my parents love Andy and Laura.”

“Shall we tell them today or sometime else?” he asked.

“Let’s do it sometime else.” she thought, “I really don’t want them to make a fuss about it.”

“Don’t you think their gonna make a fuss about it no matter when you tell them?” he asked sarcastically.

She just shrugged and got off the bike. “Probably. But I don’t wanna tell them today. Period.”

“Alright.” He took his bicocycle’s keys and they walked over to the main door.

Pidge opened the door and called out for her parents. Immediately two girls came running from the living room and hugged the visitors.

“Pidge, Dad and Mom have something brilliant to tell you!” Andy called out and quickly got silenced by Laura, “Andy, psssht. It’s still a secret.”

Andy gasped. “Ha… sorry.”

The girls ran away as quick as they had come, and rather confused Pidge and Dennis followed them to the living room. There sat Veronica and Matt as well as Sam and Colleen. The girls hid behind one of the sofas and chuckled.

“Is this… an intervention?” Pidge asked, “Or did someone die?”

“Neither,” Colleen said, “but your brother has news he wouldn't tell us unless you two would arrive. So sit down so he can tell.”

The two young doctor’s were more then just a little confused now. Dennis sat down in one of the armchairs and instead of sitting down in the empty one, Pidge sat down on his armrest, putting an arm around his neck.

“Well,” Matt said looking at Veronica smiling and holding her hand, “we decided to get married.”

Sam and Colleen were visibly happy and congratulated them, asking when the wedding would be and Colleen thought about all her friends she had to call about his.

“Congrats, I’d say,” Dennis said with a smile.

It was the first time since he knew Veronica better, that she looked this overly happy. Pidge on the other hand wasn’t this happy.

“Are you kidding me?!” she shouted, “You can’t be serious!”  
“Pidge?” Matt asked confused.

“Your wife just got declared dead!” she shouted at Veronica, “Her funeral was only six months ago! How can you think about marriage!”

Sam and Colleen were completely silence of shock.

Even Dennis was shaken about this reaction of hers. “Katie.”

“No!” she shouted out and jumped up. “This is just not right! You just used each other as a rebound!”

She ran off and up the stairs. The girls looked up confused and scared from behind the sofa. Matt stood up to follow her but Dennis jumped up and asked to be the one to talk to her.

He walked after her and found her in her old room, face buried in the sheets. He came over and sat down by her side.

“Kitty? Are you alright?” he asked and stroke over her head and back. “What was this out lash just now about?”

“They cannot marry!” Pidge said, muffled by the sheets. “They just gonna pull each other down as soon as they realize they are just using each other.”

He realized what was going on and smiled lovingly. “So you’re scared for your brother. That he might gets hurt. How cute.”

“I’m not cute!” she shouted and raised her head from the pillow.

Dennis just chuckled and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. “Come on. Just say you’re happy for them. They’ve been dating for two years now. They know each other and they’re both not stupid. If they would just use each other, don’t you think they would have realized that themselves by now?”

“I guess,” she murmured.

“So…? Do you wanna beat them at the happy news and tell them about our engagement?” he asked softly.

“No!” Pidge replied, “I said I don’t want to tell them today. Especially not after Matt and Veronica declared _they_ will marry. Do you know what that means? I’m going to be related to Lance of all people!” Her sarcastic attitude was back now. “The only thing the two of us will be celebrated for today is our success with T-45.”

“So, you’re ready to return downstairs?” he asked, “And to apologize, maybe?”

“No,” she muttered again, “let me mope a little longer.”

Dennis sighed and picked her up rather easily. She was small and light and he was tall and even though he wasn’t lifting weight or anything, small Katie was no match for him. She started to screech and kick, but in a rather playful matter. He threw her over his shoulder and walked towards the door.

“Let me go, you too tall grown idiot!” she insulted him. “Put me down!”

“Nope, Kitty-cat,” he denied. “You get back downstairs with me and tell your brother that you were only worried about him. Threaten Veronica all you want, but tell them how you feel honestly.”

“You mean I can menace them a little?” she joked.

“Whatever suits you best, Kitty,” he said, carrying her down the stairs.

She had given up to fight and as they reached the living room he sat her down on the armchair. Matt and Veronica had muttered all the time while the both of them were gone. Colleen had taken the girls to the kitchen, making them a hot chocolate. She and Sam came back into the living room, standing in the door frame.

“Go,” Dennis told his girlfriend.

Pidge took a breath, let out a small moan and said, “Sorry. I am happy if you are, Matt. But,” she pushed herself up and stalked over to Veronica, putting a foot down beside her, “you hurt my brother, no matter how, I hurt you ten times over. Understood?”

Veronica chuckled a little confused. “Yeah, alright. I promise you I will never hurt him.”

“Pidge…” Matt breathed awkwardly.

But Pidge grinned and stepped back. “Very good.” She turned to her parents. “Mom, can I have a hot chocolate? I just saved a whole Bulmera from getting killed by space-measles.”

“We.” Dennis clarified.

“Yes, Dennis gave me the final key,” she agreed and hugged him.

~~~oOo~~~

Matt’s and Veronica’s wedding had been a week ago and both of them were still in honeymoon for another week. During this time, the girls had stayed at Dennis’ and Pidge’s place. Dennis had enjoyed this time a lot, but even though Pidge loved Andrea and Laura, after a week with a hyperactive eight-year-old and a moody six-year-old, she just had to get rid off them, thus dropping them off at her parents house and icing it all with the sweetest news, was just what she needed now.

“You’re getting married?!” Colleen called out amazed, “Oh my gosh. This is the most wonderful day of my entire life! My little girl gets married! This is going to be the best and greatest wedding. We can invite anyone we know to show them your happiness and you’ll have the biggest most beautiful dress, making you look like a princess and...” Colleen kept talking and talking, and Pidge and Dennis just eyed her in wonder.

“This is the most wonderful day of her life?” Dennis muttered quietly to her, “What about Matt’s two weddings?”

“No clue,” Pidge replied.

As Colleen reached the part where a sixth-story cake appeared in her planning, the young couple decided to cut her off.

“Mom, sorry to interrupt you, but we actually already have everything organized,” Pidge said.

Colleen stopped dead in her tracks, looking at her in confusion. “W-what do you mean? You can not possibly have planed every single detail within… what? A Week since the engagement? Where is the ring by the way? Show me that pretty stone.”

The couple exchanged a look and Dennis muttered, “Well… eh… there is no ring. Yet.”

“What do you mean, no ring?” she asked confused, “Didn’t you do a romantic proposal and everything?”

Pidge and Dennis thought back to the ‘romantic proposal’ that dated back a couple of months now.

~~~oOo~~~

It was quite late already. Almost everyone on the Atlas had already gone to sleep. Pidge and Dennis had gone to bed late again and weren’t still asleep quite yet.

Pidge rolled onto her back, stared at the ceiling and asked, “I thought about getting married lately.”

“Really?” Dennis murmured drowsy, “To whom?”

“To you, idiot,” she replied and rolled her eyes at him.

“So… shall we get married then?” he asked and rolled over to her.

She turned to face him and they looked in each others eyes for a moment.

“Sure,” she agreed, “I love you.”

“I love you, too.” he said, kissed her on the forehead and pulled her closer.

Laying like this they fell asleep.

~~~oOo~~~

“Just like this?” Colleen asked disillusioned. “Not very romantic.”

“I thought it was very romantic,” Dennis said, “everything I do with Katie is romantic.”

Pidge smiled, squeezed his hand and pressed it to his chest, “Aww, you’ve to stop. As a scientist I can’t handle this much adorableness.”

Colleen took a deep breath and looked at her daughter, saying, “Katie, do you even know how lucky you are with this man?”

The young woman just smiled.

“So, back to planing the wedding.” Colleen said.

“Yes.” Pidge agreed, “We already did most of the planing, sorry. But Allura did quite a good job, realizing our vision.”

“Allura?” Colleen was quite perplex, “When… was the engagement?”

“About five months ago.” Dennis muttered.

The temper tantrum that followed was loud and furious.

“You should have said five weeks,” Pidge murmured.

“But that would have been a lie,” he replied.

It took almost ten minutes in which Pidge cooked coffee and Dennis told the girls not to worry about their grandmother, until Colleen had finally calmed down again.

Breathless she sunk down on a chair and Pidge handed her a cup of coffee.

“Feeling better?” she asked her mother gently.

“Five months?” Colleen murmured.

“Yeah… sorry.” Pidge answered, “There just never was the right moment before now.”

“So, what is planed yet?” she asked.

Pidge gave the word to Dennis. “We want a small wedding. Only us, the closest family and our closest friends. Hunk will take care of the food, Lance of the decorations and everything is organized by Allura.”

“We thought, maybe we could celebrate here,” Pidge added. “Our garden is big and… yeah. Only if you agree of course.”

Colleen looked over to her and asked, “Do you already have a dress?”

Pidge shook her head, “I wanted to buy it with you.” Very happy and relieved Colleen hugged her daughter and Pidge just added quietly, “And Allura will come too, because she is my maid of honor.”

“I’m just happy I can help you choose,” she replied.

“Yeah, but my opinion is the only one that matters,” Pidge remembered.

Finally Colleen let her daughter go and smiled happy, “Let’s call your dad and tell him.”

~~~oOo~~~

The wedding took place in the following summer. It was a dream come true for Pidge and Dennis. It had been a small ceremony. As the bridal pair had intended, there were only the small number of 26 guest, even though Veronica was eating for two.

As planned, Lance and Veronica had taken care of the flowers and Hunk, Shay and Colleen had prepared all the food and a delicious looking two-story cake covered in white fudge with sugar roses and a small, very detailed model of the bridal pair.

Matt and Will – who was a close friend of Dennis’ – played DJ that day and assured that every party heard the music they wanted.

Allura had been the perfect maid of honor and Dennis’ friend Tailor had been a great best man. The kids had been the flower children, with Laura and Andy the first in line, followed by Kyle with his two-year-old sister Antonia, then Elfor with his sister Honera, and Peter and Ted were the last before the bride.

Pidge had looked wonderful. Her dress had had a beige color, a mermaid cut, completely covered in lace with floral design and a long gown train. Her hair was braided to the side, with small flowers and pearls worked into it.

After the long party, Pidge and Dennis laid in bed and cuddled.

“I’d say the wedding was a success,” he said, “I enjoyed it.”

“I did too,” she answered, “It only would have been more awesome if the priest would have been a robot.”

Dennis chuckled and pulled her closer, kissing her shoulder.

“I think I’m going to do that,” she muttered, pressing her back to his chest.

“What? Building a robot-priest?” he asked sarcastically.

“Yeah, why not?” she replied, “But maybe I start with a robot-cat first.”

“Aren’t you a dog-person?” he asked.

She looked over her shoulder and rose a brow, “I’ve been piloting a giant robot-cat for twelve years. I like both. Cats and dogs. But I know you love cats.”

She felt his breath in her nape and he kissed her there, “I am so lucky to have you.”

“And what was for you the best?” she asked.

“You mean beside getting married to you?” he replied.

“Answer for real once, you doofus,” she joked and turned around, so she rested on top of him.

He stroke a wisp of hair away and said, “I’d say, finally not being the bottom of every joke anymore.”  
“But Dennis Menace has such a wonderful ring to it,” she chuckled.

“I like Dennis Holt better,” he said. “Now I’m a Doctor Holt as well.”

She giggled even more, “Yeah, like the seventh in the family, if you count my grandparents.”


	4. the Acxa incidence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A small revisit of the Acxa incidence (Part 11)
> 
> This time from another perspective tho.
> 
> Also, why was Pidge even thinking about getting a baby?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PiT: 15 Years after season 7 (About a month before “the Acxa incidence”)

Pidge carried her newest invention to the perfect testing group. She had worked on it for almost three years and now it was finished and ready to be tested. She pressed the bell-button of the McClain-flat and calmed the wriggling thing on her arm. The door opened and Keith greeted her.

“Hey, what do you want here with that?” he asked and pointed to the thing on her arm.

“That is Merlin, my newest, finally finished invention and I wanted to present it to your kids, to find out what they think of it,” she explained.

Keith eyed his friend then the so called invention. With a shrug he invited her in and called for his kids. Kyle and Antonia came from their room and immediately became amazed by what they saw. Pidge told them to sit down and let go of her invention.

“Kyle, Tony, Keith” she started her explanation, “meet Merlin, the very first of his kind, a robot-pet-dragon.”

All three of them were amazed.

“This is so awesome!” Kyle said and held his hand out for it.

Merlin was about the size of a cat, had four legs, a short neck and a big head with a long snout. It’s tail was long, persisted of a lot of small joints and was very maneuverable. It’s eyes looked surprisingly realistic. The mouth was packed with teeth and even had a tongue.

“I was thinking about giving it a skin but I liked the metal-robot aesthetic more,” she explained, “Merlin can do everything that a mythical dragon would have been able to do, including flying, breathing fire and loving gold. But he also is trustworthy and loving like a golden retriever, follows orders and is able to learn new commands.”

“This is so cool,” Kyle said stroking over the metal head.

“I love it, auntie.” Tony said and looked to her father, “Daddy, can we keep it?”

Keith just chuckled, “I think Papá will be against it. And Pidge as well. It is her invention after all.” Looking up from the dragon-robot, he asked, “Why a dragon anyway? I thought you where building a cat.”

“Everyone can build a cat,” she joked, “But a dragon… I had to figure out the flying mechanic and made sure it wouldn't explode when it was moving.”

“Prototypes exploded?” he asked unsure.

“Some of them. The gas for the fire mixed with air or the lighter was broken. Things like that,” she replied, not looking concerned at all. “I wanted to see how he would react to children. So Tony, Kyle, play all you want with him.”

The kids let out a cheerful tone and ran around the living room, the dragon jumping after them.

That moment the main door opened and Lance walked in. He greeted Pidge and Keith and then spotted the robot-dragon. He let out a panicked scream, ran to his kids and picked them up, taking them away from it.

“What the Quiznak is this thing? Pidge! Take it away from my children.” He screeched. “Keith why have you let this happened?”

“Papá, you’re embarrassing. Merlin doesn’t hurt anyone,” Kyle said, who his father had thrown over his shoulder.

“Lance, relax,” Pidge muttered and called Merlin to her with a whistle, “He’s perfectly save. I’ve tested him for a month now and he didn’t explode or busted out in flames. He also stopped to electrocute people.”

“That thing did what before now?” Lance shouted.

“He doesn’t do it anymore!” Pidge repeated herself.

“Get it out of my home!” Lance demanded.

“I think you better leave,” Keith said and added whispering, “We gonna visit you in the lab.”

Lance had heard what his husband had said but didn’t say anything further. A little bumped out Pidge picked the robot up and stood up to leave.

“Guess I should’ve stuck with the hamster for Lance,” she muttered on her way out. Loud she called back to Lance, “You’ll have to accept him, Lance. Sooner or later.”

The door closed behind her. Merlin wriggled on her arm and bumped his head against her chin. She chuckled and put the dragon down.

“Maybe I lower the puppy-factor a little,” she muttered, and out louder she said, “Come on, boy. Let’s return home to Dennis.”

~~~oOo~~~

The Atlas landed on earth and everything went as usual. Pidge went to her fathers office, her newest invention, the robot-pet-dragon 2.0 by her side. The 2.0 version was exactly like the first one, but bigger, about the size of a German Sheppard and it was called Arthur. To her surprise she found a young boy sitting in front of her father’s office on a chair, looking very frustrated. She stopped looking down on the boy.

“Hey kid, everything alright?” she asked.

The boy looked up and he stared in awe at her. Pidge’s hair was kinda messy and tied back, she wore big, slightly blue tainted glasses, brown ¾-shorts, with big boots and a light green shirt with a long lab-coat over it.

“You’re the green paladin,” he said.

“Indeed,” she replied, “So why are you sitting in front of Admiral Holt’s office.”

The boy staid quiet.

“What’s your name?” she asked and put a hand down on the robot’s head.

“Patrick,” the boy replied.

Pidge sat down beside him and asked again, “So, what did you do, Patrick?”

The robot-dragon stepped closer, but she stopped it with a handgesture and commanded it to sit down.

“I… became angry and beat up a classmate,” he muttered.

“Why’d you do that?” she asked curious.

The boy took a deep breath and started to mutter something about a classmate of his having bandied about killing all the aliens and especially the Galra after he had graduated.

“You know, Commander Holt, I really like this one Galra. He is in our class and he has never done anything to anyone. He only is guarding himself by not talking to anyone,” Patrick explained, “I-I tried to talk to him, offering him my friendship but he ignores me too. And when I heard Ray, saying these words with Remdin being in earshot… I just couldn't hold back.”

This story construct seemed oddly familiar to her and she couldn't stop herself from chuckle.

“Listen, kid” she said, “you’re only… what? 14? You should take anything someone you’re age says with a grain of salt. You’re just kids.”

“But I want Remdin-”

“Galra are very shy when young and alone,” Pidge explained to him, “You can think of them as cats, at least a little. If they like you, they come on their own. Try being genuinely nice to him without second thoughts. Don’t drive him into a corner.”

“Who do you know all that?” the boy asked.

“My friends and colleagues,” she explained, “the Commanders McClain. They behaved pretty much the same when they were your age. Also, someone who says they would kill all the aliens deserves to be punched.”

Patrick chuckled and looked at the robot-dragon. Just as he wanted to say something the door opened and Admiral Holt stepped out.

“Cadet Ro… Katie? What are you doing here?” he said surprised.

“Hello, Admiral. Just wanted to pay you a quick visit after the landing of the Atlas,” she said and did a quick salute.

Samuel’s face lit up with a smile, “How nice. Come in. Cadet, please wait a little longer.”

“Sure, Admiral.”

Pidge got up and walked, followed by the dragon into her father’s office.

After the doors closed she pointed to the robot-dragon by her side, “Mainly I came to show you this beauty. My newest invention, the robot-pet-dragon 2.0 or the Arthur. Perfectly trainable, able to fly and breath fire and protective over whoever they are programmed on. The Merlin, the RPD 1.0, is much smaller.”

“This is amazing, Katie,” Sam praised her and kneeled down to eye the impressive and ‘realistic’ looking robot. “Amazing craftsmanship. The components are just wonderful.” He looked back up at her and asked, “Are there any other great news?”

She thought about the last trip to space and explained, “Well, we did save a diplomat, defeated a bunch of pirates that wanted to raid a space-station, had a nice meeting with-”

“No, I mean more private,” he interrupted her. “Something with Dennis maybe?”

“With Dennis?!” she repeated confused and seriously had to think about it, “Er… I… well… we’re happy, if you mean that. He found a new method to heal _deep space fever_, with big portions of his research going back to my doctoral thesis about the topic.”

Sam frowned a little and stood up, “That’s great. But I meant more like… another family member of sort.”

“A baby?!” she shouted out, “Dad, I’m a scientist and a doctor, no housewife.”  
“No-one asks you to be a housewife,” Sam said quickly. “The other paladins-”

“I don’t even like children!” she said enraged. “Those little crotch goblins. I certainly don’t want some for myself. Dennis knows that and he doesn’t have a problem with it.”

Samuel tired to calm her down, “Katie, please. I didn’t want to upset you. Mom and I were just wondering, you know. Matt and Veronica have Kimberly now and you two… you’ve been married for three years now and still… I’m not pressuring you. I was just wondering.”

Pidge sighed, “I’m leaving. I believe you have a cadet to take care of.” She turned towards the door. “Don’t be to hard on him. He’s in love and doesn’t act rational. He reminds me of Lance. Overbearing, protective. See ya. Come on, Arthur.”

She left the room and while walking by she stroked over Patrick’s head.

~~~oOo~~~

It was the first of December. The Atlas was on earth for almost a month now. Pidge laid in her bed sleeping tight. Next to her slept Dennis, snoring solemnly.

All of the sudden her alarm went off and both doctors startled awake.

“Whaat thee heeeell?” she growled and picked up her phone, “What?”

“Good morning, Katie.” The happy face of her father greeted her.

“Dad? What do you want?” she growled, “It’s two in the morning.”

“It’s half past two and I’m not calling you as Dad, but as Admiral Holt.” Sam said.

“Oh, is that so?” she asked and saluted very tiredly and halfheartedly, “So what is it, Admiral?”

“Our radars caught on an unknown space vessel falling down to earth. The vessel crashed not five minutes ago and a team is already on it’s way there. But I want you as a paladin and your team there too for recovery and possible emergency first aid,” he explained to her.

“Fine,” she hissed, “I’m there in ten. Send me coordinates.”

“Make it 15. It’s 50 miles from the garrison.” Sam told her and hung up.

Pidge sighed loud and her head dropped back on her pillow.

“Have fun, Kitty.” Dennis muttered and kissed her on the back of her neck.

Pidge shoved away the blanket and pulled on it in a way, that Dennis laid free without a blanket, too.

“Hey!” he protested.

“No hey. You’re part of my fucking team,” she growled. “Get your lazy ass out of bed and lets go.”

“You can be so mean when you’re tired,” he mumbled.

They got up and dressed and Pidge assembled her team, of three young interns, a Galra and two Humans, one Olkari robotic expert and two Altean engineers.

13 minutes and 56 seconds after Sam’s call, Pidge and her team arrived at the supposed crash zone. She sent her coordinates to her dad with the note, ‘no 15’ and called out for the rescue team that was already there.

“Who’s in charge here?” she yelled.

A garrison soldier stepped forward, saluted and said, “Lieutenant Cole Peterson. I’m in charge, Commander Holt.”

He quickly eyed her and the much taller man beside her. They both wore lab-coats and not at all straightened clothes. Commander Holts hair was messy to say the least and tied back to a ponytail.

“Good, what do we know at this point?” Pidge asked and added, “At ease.”

Lieutenant Peterson put down his arm and said, “The space vessel was identified as an old Galran fighter. Our sensors told us that one person is inside, status alive at this point.”

“An old Galran fighter?” Pidge asked confused, “I thought all the old warships have been destroyed and recycled?”

“Apparently not, Ma’am.”

“Don’t call me Ma’am.” She growled, “Who am I? My mother?”

“Excuse me, Sir… Ma’am… Commander,” the Lieutenant babbled and was visibly embarrassed.

Pidge just rolled her eyes and looked back to her team, “Pallum, Nouka, Kamia, figure out where this fighter comes from and how the pilot’s stats are.”

The two Alteans and the Olkari nodded and moved towards the fighter, unpacking their equipment.

“Dennis, Leith, Davidson and Washkut, get ready for first aid measures. We maybe have to do a crash saving,” she ordered around.

The doctors started to unpack their equipment and prepared themselves. Pidge walked, accomplished by Lieutenant Peterson, to the crashed space vessel. Peterson’s team worked with welding torches to cut open the fighter and free the pilot.

“Commander, we have a visual.” Pallum, the Olkari, called out.

“Great, what can you tell me?” she asked.

“It appears to be a humanoid being with five fingered hands and probably female.” Pallum said, “One of her legs seems to be stuck in the cramped cockpit.”

“An Altean?” asked Kamia, looking up from her work.

Her colleague Nouka kept working and muttered, “Could be a human too, or a Galra. Keep working.” suddenly he called out in triumph, “I got the coordinates, Commander! The fighter’s from a stationary base called Zeta-95, in the Quebal quadrant.”

“Perfect.” Pidge praised, “I’m going to sent this information to Ex-Commander Gnov and Captain Bogh. Maybe they can tell us something about the base.”

While Pidge was taking care of the information transfer, Peterson’s team managed to remove the cover of the fighter.

“What the…” Pidge suddenly heard one of the Cadets call out, “Commander, look at the pilot!”

Pidge let out a whistle and Dennis and his Galran intern Leith came running towards the vessel. As Pidge turned to the vessel she was startled. On the pilots seat sat a Galran woman. She was clearly visible in the floodlight. Her skin was blue, her hair purple-blue and so long that it hung down to her tailbone. She was dressed in slaves clothing, scars were visible all over her body and she had bleeding wounds everywhere.

“Acxa!?” Pidge cried out, pushed a cadet aside and climbed on the wrack to look at the pilot.

“Acxa?” Lieutenant Peterson asked, “Like in Acxa McClain? The sister of the black paladin that died 5 years ago?”

“Yes,” Dennis shut him up, “Any more unnecessary explanations?” He ran to his wife and put a hand down no her lower back, “Is it really her? How is she?”

“She’s alive,” she replied, “but we have to get her out immediately. Her leg seems to be stuck and I can make out some heavy bleeding. We have to get her out _now_!”

Dennis turned around and called, “Okay, you heard the Commander, cut her free.”

He helped Pidge down and the Cadets started to cut Acxa free.

“Please get ready for an emergency rescue.” she asked him in a low voice, “I make a quick call.”

He nodded and Pidge walked a bit sideways.

“Conference call Keith, Allura, Shiro, Krolia and Matt.” she ordered her phone. 

~~~oOo~~~

In the hospital they had Acxa scanned and immediately did an emergency surgery. They had to amputate her left leg. It had been almost cut off by the cockpit and a sharp shred of metal. The tissue had been much too damaged to save it. The multiple internal bleedings had been hard to stop but they managed. The left arm was broken several times and they had to stabilize it with a multitude of screws and nails. The right arm was alright, only the shoulder was dislocated. Several of her rips had been broken, but those were not severe. Even after multiple brain scans they found no damage there. Compared to all of that, the small burns, cuts and bruises from the crash seemed like a joke.

The surgery took them almost five hours and they had to reanimate her two times.

After everything was finally ‘fixed’, Acxa was transferred to the ICU, being comatose and receiving artificial respiration.

The thing Pidge and Dennis wondered most though was a thing found in her lower body-half. Or rather the absence of a certain body part.

Before going to see their friends in the waiting room, they had a small talk.

“Whoever did the castration, did a good job,” Pidge murmured. “No scar-tissue, no signs of problems in the healing-period.”

“Everything got cut out clean and thoroughly,” Dennis agreed. “Definitely must have been a doctor with experience.”

“Yeah. I doubt I could have done it so good,” she muttered.

“Shall we tell the others?” he asked.

She shook her head. “No. I wanna know what happened. A woman doesn’t get castrated just for fun. We’ll ask her what happened when she wakes up. I’ll give her two weeks to wake up on her own. After that it could get very difficult and we can’t say for sure if she will be the same when she wakes up then.”

“Alright. We wait then,” he agreed. “We definitely have to tell about the other injuries thou.”

“Of course,” she replied, “we only keep the castration under wraps for now. Let’s go.”

Pidge felt sick as they stepped out into the waiting room. A heavy silence filled the room. Everyone was there.

Shiro was the one to ask the question everyone wanted to ask, “How is she?”

Pidge sighed and let Dennis answer, she just couldn't. “Well, the good news is, Acxa is alive.”

A wave of relieve filled the room.

But Dennis wasn’t done yet and told them about Acxa’s injuries, only leaving the castration out.

“We did everything we could,” Pidge added after he finished and collapsed onto a chair.

“Can we see her?” Krolia asked, who sat in a chair in a corner, playing with her knife.

Dennis pushed up his glasses a bit and answered, “We can allow only family in for now and only for a couple of minutes now.”

Krolia stood up and put her knife away, Keith let go of Lance and stepped to his mother. Veronica also raised from her chair and wanted to see Acxa.

“Sorry, Ver- Officer Holt. But only family members for now I’m afraid,” Dennis said in a serious tone, even though he didn’t want to hurt her.

He would want to see his Katie as well, when she was hurt. The only difference was that he would actually be able to see her.

Tears of anger and frustration filled Veronica’s eyes as she shouted, “I am her wife!”

“Ex-wife,” Dennis corrected her, “therefore I’m sorry but you gotta stay outside.”

He saw how hard it hit her but this were the hospital’s rules. He wouldn't be able to bend them. Also he really didn’t want poor, sensitive Veronica to see Acxa’s demolished body right now. With a nod he asked Keith and Krolia to follow him into the patient’s room.

He didn’t know how either of them would react. He didn’t know Krolia that well and Keith behaved very different, depending on the people and situation around him. With his family he was all soft but at work he was a force to be reckoned with.

Seeing the patched up Acxa, they both remained very silent, their eyes dark and they just stared at the bed.

“Will she wake up?” Keith asked.

“We hope so,” Dennis said. “She’ll probably recover fully when she wakes up within the next two weeks. Otherwise… we can’t say that for sure. Also, we can’t predict how her psychological state will be when she wakes up.”

“Thank you, Doctor,” Krolia muttered.

“You’re taking care of her, Dennis?” Keith asked.

The doctor nodded. “She’s my patient. I won’t leave her side until she has recovered.”

“Thank you,” they both said and left the room.

He followed them and closed the door to Acxa’s room, telling a nurse to regularly look after her. Back in the waiting room, Lance and Pidge were the only ones left.

Lance pushed himself off the wall and stepped to Keith, “How are you feeling?”

Keith didn’t answer, just putting his head down against Lance’s collarbone.

“Alright,” he muttered, “We’re going home. You wanna come too, Krolia?”

“Thank you but I have to make a call,” she refused his offer. “Acxa’s father still thinks his only daughter is dead.”

The three of them left the waiting room together and Dennis stepped next to his wife, pulling her head to his chest.

“Shall we go home?” he asked.

“Yeah. I’m tired,” she muttered, “Let’s go.”

~~~oOo~~~

Today Acxa had woken up after only a week. Everyone was happy about that but also a lot of… not so happy stuff had happened. Matt had talked with Acxa for a long time and left with his family rather fast afterwards.

Pidge was able to leave rather quick today. She had had worked longer the prior days. Her father’s words from a couple weeks ago still echoed through her head.

A baby. A crotch goblin from herself and Dennis. A baby from Dennis. One could say a mini-Dennis. On her way back from work she had stopped in a bookshop and had purchased a book about babies and stuff.

When Dennis came home in the evening, Pidge was sitting in the living room reading in the baby book.

Beforehand, she had read some files from patients that were concerning her in the moment as well as the report about Acxa’s crash this far.

“Why are you reading about babies?” he asked instead of greeting her, “I thought you don’t like kids. What you call them? Crotch goblins?”

It was rare for him not to greet her with a smile and a kiss.

“Yeah…” she muttered, slowly putting the book down and looking up at him, “But recently I was thinking about it.” She eyed him, trying to figure out what was up with him and asked, “What do you think about our own crotch goblin?”

Dennis put aside the files and sat down next to her. “Let’s talk about anything but children for tonight.”

“Why?” she asked confused.

She knew he loved children and had thought he would be more excited when she suggested to have their own one.

“I talked to Acxa about our founds,” he explained.

Pidge was even more confused now. “Which founds? We found a lot.”

“About her missing genitals!” he clarified.

“Oh,” she muttered and things started to make sense. “So… w-what did she say?”

Dennis recapped and told her anything that had happened. He hesitated sometimes and his voice was throaty. He told her about Theros, Mula Abri, the fighting, the heat, the pregnancy and the following beating, rape and abortion which resulted in the castration. With every word he said, Pidge felt more uncomfortable and understood his earlier request. In the end she just threw the baby-book away.

“Okay. No crotch goblin for now,” she muttered. “Damn… this poor girl. You got her a therapist?”

Dennis nodded. After some time of silence he said, “I think I’m going to stay on earth.”

“What?” she asked confused, “You’re part of my research team and our best doctor.”

“I know but, Katie, please understand I cannot give Acxa to anyone else,” he explained, “I’m her doctor. She trusts me, without even really knowing me. It’s my duty as a doctor to stay by my patient’s side.”

Pidge smiled. He was right. He usually was.

She kissed her husband on the cheek and said, “I understand. But I want an official request to stay here on my desk by next Monday.”

Dennis chuckled and agreed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the most up-to-date part of the story. Let's take a look into the future that lies ahead of us


	5. Findings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pidge has taken a pregnancy test, but karma is a bitch and she's not able to see the result now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PiT: 18 Years after season 7 
> 
> This is a very important part for Pidge's and Denni's story and the chapter to (for now) conclude Pidge's Happiness.
> 
> Thus I'm presenting to you a Preview to part 16 “Findings”
> 
> I know the chapter is rather short, but it is essential.

Pidge sat in her shower and waited. Only a minute was left. Thinking about it, it was very out of character for her to sit on the floor of the shower staring at a pregnancy-test for five minutes straight, thinking something could happen every second.

Now only a minute was left on the timer. Her heartbeat became faster as the timer counted down towards zero.

All of the sudden the alarm sirens went off, “**All Paladins to the lions immediately! This is not a drill. Repeat. All Paladins to the lions. This is not a drill.**”

This was the most inconvenient moment. She couldn't stay here for another minute. In moments like this every second mattered. Cursing, she dropped the test and ran out of the bathroom and her flat. She only wore jogging-pants and a sweater, no socks or shoes whatsoever. She reached the changing room in the hangar within under a minute via the emergency elevators that only the paladins and MFE-Pilots were able to use, with a special chip-card. In the changing room she met Allura who was already zipping up the black bodysuit.

“Pidge, hurry,” Allura said, “this is very serious.”

“What even happened?” Pidge asked, “I had important stuff to do.”

“ Your robots can wait,” the Altean replied, “but our sensors picked up signals of an AU-Portal caused by a comet similar to the one the lions and Sincline ships were made of.”

“Another of these comets?” Pidge asked confused. “What is even the hurry about just now? The comet won’t just disappear.”

“If it just was the comet it wouldn't be a problem,” Allura explained, “but a big cruiser is drifting towards the portal without engines. If they hit the portal they’ll just disappear, getting killed by the portal in the process.”

Now she understood and hurried to change into her armor.

~~~oOo~~~

Dennis came home calling for Pidge. When he got no answer he figured she was still with the other paladins. This had been the first emergency call for the paladins in months and it had taken almost an hour to save that cruise ship.

Thinking about his cute Kitty-cat saving lives made him proud. Looking around the small flat he realized how chaotic and dirty everything was. Papers were strewn around, as well as a lot of clothes, books and magazines and even some tools.

He decided to clean up a little. As he carried a bunch of dirty clothes to the bathroom to dump them into the laundry basket he noticed a small piece of plastic laying on the ground. As a doctor and a more than decent intelligent human, he immediately recognized the piece as a pregnancy-test. Curiously he picked the test up. They were talking about having a child for quite some time now and had stopped to use protection. First it had come up about three years ago, but the whole thing with Acxa had delayed the execution of this idea. For the last half year or so they were trying it again.

Picking up the test he looked for the result. It showed two stripes. His heart skipped a beat when he realized that the test was positive.

“Oh my… this is…” he muttered and started to laugh happily.

His thoughts circled around babies and everything they would have to do and what they could do and… why hasn’t she told him yet? Did she even know yet? Maybe the alarm had called her into action before she had been able to see the result. She surly wouldn’t have left the test on the floor in the shower when she had seen it was positive and had had time to realize that she was pregnant. Why was the test even in the shower in the first place?

Happily staring at the test he heard his phone ringing and picked up, sounding more than just a little distracted, “Holt.”

“Dennis!” Hunk shouted in his ear, “Hospital! Now! Asap! Pidge…!”

Dennis was confused not understanding a single word, “Hunk, calm down. What are you trying to tell me?”

He tried to calm him but Hunk kept panting and shouting, “You gotta hurry! Pidge… she got stabbed!”

“Wh… what?” he muttered.

This… was… unbelievable. Everything that seemed so close just a moment ago felt unreachable all of the sudden. Hunk’s voice was far away, echoing through the distance. It felt like the world had stopped spinning.

He didn’t even realize how the test and phone slipped his fingers and fell to the ground.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stay tuned for Part 16 “Findings”…


End file.
